


How Imaginary Friends Saved the Universe

by starsnspace



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Peter and his imaginary friends, bby Peter parker, infinity war fic, infinity war fix it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 13:24:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15708111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsnspace/pseuds/starsnspace
Summary: When Peter Parker was 6, he made a friend.  His name was Iron Man, and he was the absolute coolest.or: how Peter and his imaginary friends end up saving the universe





	How Imaginary Friends Saved the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this from 1:30-2:30 last night, on my phone (over 2,000 words wtf!!!) but then today at like a normal human time I edited it and it sounds a lot better lol please enjoy!

When Peter was 5, he made a new imaginary friend. His friend was named Iron Man, and he was the absolute coolest. Iron Man could fly and he could shoot the bad guys with his laser beams and he could always find a solution to the evil plot. 

Soon after, Peter made more friends. Captain America. Black Widow. Hulk. Hawkeye. Thor. Each with their own superpowers and personalities and love for Peter. 

They were his best friends, and on hot summer days Peter would run around his backyard with them while his Mom and Dad worked in their special lab, the one he wasn't allowed in, fighting the bad guys and bringing justice to the world. 

But when Peter was 6, Mom and Dad died. And with it, Peter's belief that justice would prevail. He sat in his room, numb, as Aunt May and Uncle Ben did their best to coerce the child out of his melancholia. When Peter was 6, his parents died, and so did his best friends.

He waited for his best friends to return, to save him from the bullies and to help pick him up when he fell down. Peter had moved to a new city, lived with a new family (who, Peter being honest, he didn’t even know if he liked because his paretns kept to themselves more), but had no new friends to complete the picture. Days passed, weeks, months, years. They had vanished.

But then Peter turned 8. And suddenly, Iron Man was real. A real superhero, who could fly and had laser beams and could always solve the bad guys evil plot. Peter's whole world shifted when he watched Tony Stark declare to the press that he was Iron Man.

Peter realized his friends hadn't left him like his parents had. They just took a break, to become reality.

Iron Man was always Peter's best friend, they could talk science together and solve problems with help from Peter's imagination and Iron Man's ingenuity. He was funny and sarcastic and even though he made teasing comments at their other friends, he always told Peter how proud of him he was. Iron Man became a second father to Peter, before Uncle Ben, that it. So it made since that Iron Man was the first of his imaginary friends to show up. 

Next was Hulk. Peter had always loved Hulk, who did as he pleased, but always made sure to protect Peter when things were getting dangerous on their special missions to climb the trees in his backyard, or to hike through the dense underbrush of the forest behind the Parker’s home. He had a soft spot for Hulk's alter ego too, The Doctor was almost as smart as Iron Man and was kind to Peter when he got a skinned knee. When it was revealed that a real doctor, Bruce banner, was Hulk, Peter didn't bat an eye.

When it turned out Thor was an actual god, not a cool superhero name, Peter was mildly surprised. He had always thought that Thor was just funny, speaking with the odd cadence and unusual vernacular, not a deity from a distant world. He had a way of cheering Peter up without trying, and was exactly what he needed, especially since he had just started being bullied by the new kid, Flash.

Captain America, well, Peter had always known who Cap was. Peter had learned about him in preschool, but it was nice to confirm that he was still around and who Peter thought he was. Peter related to Captain America, because they both felt that the hero should do the best to save everyone or die trying, but also because they had lost a part of themselves suddenly and without warning, and hadn't been the same since.

Hawkeye and Black Widow, well, Peter couldn't find them. He scoured the internet, searching vainly for the master archer and the incredible spy, only to find conspiracy websites and the odd mention of a red room and shields. Although he was worried, Peter knew that the man who would tell Peter jokes until he stopped crying when he was bullied and the woman who did her best to teach him to fight back we're just where they wanted to be.

New York happened. 

Peter was on the outskirts, staring wide-eyed out the window of his aunt and uncle's apartment in Queens as aliens descended onto Manhattan Island in droves. The wormhole above Iron Man-no, Peter reminded himself- Tony Stark's tower glowed a menacing blue, and for once in his life, Peter wasn't afraid. Tony Stark was Iron Man, and Iron Man could solve any problem. Peter just had to hope that their elusive friends had joined his best friend, otherwise Iron Man would be in big trouble and might even need Peter's help to fight the aliens. When he'd tried to convince Uncle Ben that, well, it didn't go over very well and he'd been locked in their bedroom for the rest of the day, sandwiched between the two on their bed even though no one slept a wink.

The aliens appeared and left in only one day, and the savior's of New York were announced:

Iron Man

Hulk

Thor

Captain America

Hawkeye

Black Widow.

Peter’s friends saved the city, just like he knew they would. He was glad to see Hawkeye and Black Widow were okay, even if he knew they could take care of themselves (Hawkeye had told him that even though he could only shoot arrows pretty well, and Black Widow was just a good spy, they had other tricks up their sleeves). 

After the announcement, Peter did the only thing he could think of: he ran away from Uncle Ben and Aunt May and went searching for his friends.

Deep in his chest, he felt a pull. Find, find, find, it said. Go, go, go, it pushed. So Peter went. It wasn't hard to find them, Iron Man felt safe in his gigantic monument to himself, and Peter knew he was generous enough to offer the rest of their friends rooms to stay. Peter just had to get to it.

Surprisingly, it wasn't hard. Peter knew the route to the subway, Aunt May had taken him to Central Park a few weeks back and he clearly remembered the way, and once he got to the subway, he just had to grab a map and find the closest stop to Iron Man's building. That was easy, too. He crawled under the turnstile, having forgotten money for the ticket, and hopped on to the train car. 

It was a forgettable ride. No one paid any attention to a kid who seemed to know what he was doing, so Peter sat and waited for his stop. It approached quickly, and when he stepped out into the sunlight, the shadow of his destination directed him the rest of the way.

The streets were still a mess. Debris lined the curbs and the street was covered in a thick layer of cement dust. Workers heaved heavy blocks into dump trucks, and unlucky businesspeople trekked to their offices through the mess. Peter followed in a man's footsteps, stepping carefully into his shoe prints to avoid ruining his shoes, Aunt May had just bought them and he didn't want to get them too dirty.

Peter stood outside the tower. It was the epicenter of the disaster, yet had been spared in a way the surrounding buildings hadn't. Sure, there was damage, but nothing like the collapsed office building next to it had suffered. Stark Tower had only suffered cosmetic damages, and Peter was grateful because it made his task so much easier than having to fly to Malibu or something, where Iron Man had other houses.

The boy marched into the tower, undaunted by the carnage and disrepair of the first floor. He walked up to the elevator, no, not the four right in plain sight, but the one hidden, in a tiny nook near a custodial closet, the one that was for the personal use of the Avengers.

Peter still couldn't get over how his friends had come up with a team name and excluded him from the decision (he'd complain, but he loved the name too much to put up much of a fight).

When Peter pressed the up button, he half expected the elevator to not come. Even though he felt-no, he knew-that this was right, he didn't know if his friends remembered him. Why wouldn't they have searched for him, brought him home, helped him with his new bullies and skinned knees and dead parents? But the elevator arrived, and he stepped in, pressing the buttons in a combination that he knew was the secret password to the penthouse (don’t ask how he knew, Peter felt it was true just as he felt the desperate need to see his friends).

His friends were all there, waiting, when he stepped out. Iron Man had a stern look on his face, like when Peter told him he wanted to sneak into his parents’ lab to see if they could make one of the robots they had discussed, and he'd been shot down-hard. In fact, they all did. Each of his friends looked at him with mistrust, and Peter suddenly felt all his ten years come crashing down on him and wanted to cry like the child he was.

“Who the hell are you and how did you get up here?” growled Iron Man.

“Tony,” snapped Hulk, no, The Doctor. “He's a kid, no swearing. But the question stands,” he continued in a softer tone, turning to Peter, “how did you get here?”

Peter glanced at his friends and began in a small voice, “I came here to see you. You're my friends, don't you remember? We played superhero every day when I was little, before Mom and Dad died. Then you left me. I've been looking for you guys everywhere!”

With that exclamation, Peter rushed forward and hugged the nearest person, who just happened to be Black Widow. She was taken aback, visibly so, and stood there as the child began crying and clutching her waist.

“I didn't know what happened, you were there, and we were playing, and you just said 'Peter, we have to go now, be strong and courageous and we'll see each other again soon’ but you were gone for two years and then Iron Man showed up and you started coming back! But you didn't come to see me, so I waited until we could all be together to come see you all. But now we can be together forever and play and be happy again.”

It was like a spell took over the room. Each of the Avengers froze as memories unlocked in their minds, of a young boy with a heart of gold and a whip-smart brain who needed help, which they gladly gave. They didn't know how it happened, or why, but they knew that this kid was their ultimate mission. Saving-or at worst avenging- the Earth was the mission given, but it was all for this kid.

Peter Parker, age 10 and ¼, was the most important child to ever exist. After being bitten by a radioactive spider with he was 14, and witnessing his uncle's death soon after, Peter became a superhero in his own right. His powers only enhanced his ability to love and care for others and increased his thinking capacity, as well. When Peter was 17, Thanos retrieved the Infinity Stones, and successfully wiped out half the universe. Including Peter. With Peter's death (and countless others), the Avengers worked tirelessly to bring balance back to the universe. 

And they did.

And while all around them, loved ones dissipated into clouds of ash that scattered in the wind, the only person that was universally missed with Peter Parker.

He was only a kid. He represented wholly what would be lost if they didn’t succeed, the loss of pure goodness, of hope, of innocence. When Tony Stark arrived back on Earth with a cobalt robotic alien in tow, the only person on his mind was Peter. The child he first encountered at the age of six, when neither of them quite understood the connection they felt (well, Peter knew Iron Man was his best friend, sometimes like his dad, but for Tony, it took leaving Peter to realize that he was his son in everything but blood). Tony worked tirelessly, searching and gathering and crafting the perfect plan to bring Peter back to life.

His plan consisted of many intricate parts. He had some help, of course, but the majority of the plan consisted of Tony’s work and his incredible mind. All for Peter, he would think.

Of course it worked. It was Iron Man who came up with this plan, to beat the bad guys like they deserved, to fly around, and to shoot laser beams at the evil aliens that helped cause this catastrophe in the first place. Peter could’ve told him that, though.  
When, after Peter and half the universe was resurrected, Doctor Strange offered them all a choice. It had taken years for Tony to come up with the plan. He had motivation, but it wasn’t strong enough. Strange could implant a second consciousness into his mind, into the first Avenger’s minds, in order to help them understand the future a bit more. But it would have to be disguised. But how to implant memories of an idea so terrifying, tony Stark had had nightmares at just the inkling of knowledge he was cursed with?

Simple. A child, close to them all, who had plenty of time on his hands. Someone who could be trusted, of course, someone who could have memories of his own be displaced in order to hold this knowledge. And when a child says to his six close friends, “The whole universe is in danger! The evil alien is gonna tear us apart!” it is taken as a game, but when aliens are proven real and Tony Stark’s nightmares become a prophecy, the Avengers will be proactive. And when Thanos strikes again, he will not have the clean sweep he once had, before Peter and his imaginary friends met. He will perish. 

And Peter Parker, the boy who played with the Avengers and foretold the agony of the future, will have helped save them all.

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! I wanted to debrief this a bit I guess idk. so, the idea for this is that Peter sees the avengers as he grows up, and they form a bond. when peter's innocence is lost, so are his imaginary friends. but as they begin popping back up in the real world, just as he imagined them, Peter has to come meet them. and then it kinda spirals into how he met his imaginary friends in the first place. its really disjointed and I feel like the pacing has problems, but I feel like the idea has merit. let me know what you think in the comments and thank you so so so so so SO much for reading!!!


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